With digital marketing being such a broad area of expertise, strategies for getting the most out of your marketing are always changing. There was a great shift in digital marketing trends in 2021 due to the pandemic and this year was no different. That being said, let’s take a look at the most used digital marketing trends and which ones will continue to grow in the future.
Video Marketing
And here we are, for yet another year video marketing is one of the most used, studied, and effective trends when it comes to publishing content. Due to the success of TikTok, the short-form video seems to be the go-to form of content to capture a large audience. We can see other large platforms such as Youtube Shorts, and Instagram Reels, do the same by encouraging creatives to use short-form videos for their content and rewarding them with more engagement.
We can also see a trend in a large increase in live-streaming audiences. Online businesses centered around podcast content have been embracing the live-video premiere function on platforms such as Youtube and Facebook. This is great for speaking with your audience and getting engagement as you are feeding them your content.
Quick, entertaining, and informative video content is here to stay. It would be best practice in the years to come to optimize your video content strategy to take advantage of the current trend.
Voice SEO
Many consumers still use voice assistants daily. There are a handful of reasons why people use voice assistants, the most common reason being that their hands are occupied, whether driving or doing some type of work. Every year millions of dollars are put into improving software like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsofts Cortana, and Google’s Digital Assistant.
In 2022 about 20% of all internet searches were used through one of these voice-based services. That is not a small number to scoff at. While everyone is still focusing on text-based searches on Google, you should think ahead and capture the audience that is currently using Voice Search and for people that will use it in the future when starts to trend more.
When optimizing conversational phrases in your SEO try to capture audiences that may search by voice instead of text if it fits your strategy. Someone may type “Japanese restaurants in Toronto” but while using voice search they may say “What’s a good Japanese restaurant in Toronto?”
First Party Data
We’ve been told for years now that Google will soon phase out third-party cookies. It’s slated to happen by the end of next year. What we need to do is get ready now not later. This trend is already in place since Safari and Firefox have already gotten rid of their third-party cookies, and marketers such as myself have felt the drastic change. Things like email open and click rates are a lot more ambiguous and hard to determine. This makes it harder to see if KPIs are being met and what goals can be accurately measured.
Most agencies and businesses use third-party data for most of their analytics. A lot of this information is collected from users using social media apps, and this will no longer be usable.
In that case, it is important for marketers to incorporate ways to conscientiously collect data from customers. This can be done directly by asking customers to opt-in to newsletters, through direct email, and through surveys. Agencies have been known to use customer purchase history, social media profiles, and website registrations as well when gathering Zero/First Part Data.
Data-Driven Analytics
Using data to back your marketing strategy helps to create more personalized content. Data can be used to better understand your audience and tailor your content and messaging to increase engagement with customers.
This past year, marketers that were surveyed found that there were three metrics that proved to be most influential for the ROI of their marketing.
- Sales and Revenue Attributed to Marketing
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Personalization
People tend to like messaging that connects to them at a deep, specific level. Instead of using broad messaging and content, segment data so you can create content that targets a person’s interests or individual needs.
Using personalized messaging is also a great way to show your appreciation for a customer’s business. Wishing a customer a happy birthday or thanking them for a recent purchase or for being a subscriber for a year.
Conversational Marketing AI
One of the more situational but immediate trends this year was the explosion of Marketing AI, especially chatbots. Approximately 80% of customers have had positive experiences with Chatbots. Many of these people also prefer a chatbot AI then waiting for a human agent to answer a question. Chatbots are getting more and more intuitive and precise in their conversations. They are innovative pieces of AI that use speed and convenience as their best advantage. Chatbots can answer questions quicker than a human, can increase sales, scale support teams, and are available 24/7.
Digital marketers know all too well, change is just a day-to-day part of the job. We have to keep ahead of trends and prepare for future updates, and changes in consumer behavior, and capitalize on popular platforms.
By researching, understanding, and implementing these trends today, businesses can one-up their competition and have a head start in 2023!
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